Baseball players entering their walk year typically get scrutinized more since they’re playing for a new contract and perhaps a new team.
But baseball executives entering their walk year seldom receive the same kind of probing treatment. Rarely are the terms of their contracts publicized, and even when they are, most fans believe presidents and general managers are as expendable as a box of balls.
That’s not the case, of course. A talented executive can change the direction of a franchise, as Theo Epstein proved during the Chicago Cubs’ rebuild.
“It’s just as cold on opening day, it’s the same,” Hoyer said from the Cubs dugout, awkwardly attempting to inject some humor into a subject he didn’t want to discuss.
“No, it feels a little different,” he admitted. “I said that in spring training that everything feels a little bit different. But I’m excited we have a good team and I just focus on that aspect of it so I don’t have to focus on myself.”
That’s exactly what you expected him to say. Still, most observers believe Hoyer is entering a playoff-or-bust season
after failing to take the Cubs to the postseason in his first four years as president. Chairman Tom Ricketts has said the Cubs should be the “team to beat” in the National League Central, and they were the consensus favorites.
Would Hoyer like to have contract talks with Ricketts?
“If we ever have talks, I’d keep that internal, just like a Kyle Tucker extension,” he replied.
Naturally. But would Hoyer like to have them?
“Listen, I’ve been here 14 years and I love this place,” he said. “My family loves this place. Even driving into the ballpark today, it doesn’t get better than a home opener at Wrigley. I don’t think you can say that everywhere and I don’t take that for granted.”
Fans stand for the national anthem before the Cubs host the Padres at the home opener at Wrigley Field on April 4, 2025. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune)
In an interview with CNBC last month,
Ricketts said Hoyer “has done a pretty good job of bringing us back up from a couple bad years we’ve had,” apparently referring to 2021 and 2022 as the “bad years.” The Cubs were 83-79 the last two seasons, which technically is “up.”
Ricketts also mentioned the improved farm system and the fact Hoyer “supplemented it with several good free agents over the last couple years.” Other than Dansby Swanson and Shota Imanaga, it’s unknown whom Ricketts was referring to when he said “several.”
Ricketts added that “if we win our division, then anything can happen, and we believe we’ll be back in the mix this year.”
Hoyer probably will never get the credit he deserves for being the general manager of the Cubs’ only championship team in the last century-plus. But he knew when he left San Diego in 2011 to rejoin Epstein in Chicago that Epstein would run the show and he’d be the trusty sidekick. It worked to perfection for a while, and Epstein will be a certain Hall of Famer when he’s nominated.
Hoyer’s term as president has not gone as smoothly, though he did execute the great summer sell-off of 2021 after failing to come to terms with Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Javier Báez. With the exception of Pete Crow-Armstrong, who arrived from the New York Mets in the Báez deal, none of the other prospects he got in return for those three stars have made a dent with the Cubs.
But Bryant and Báez have been on downward slides since leaving Chicago, and Rizzo, who rejected a five-year, $70 million offer from Hoyer before his walk year of 2021, remains unsigned after the New York Yankees declined his $17 million option for 2025.
Rizzo told The Athletic in 2022:
“It’s not like I’m sitting here saying I wish I had taken it. If I play four to six more years, I’m going to make more money than I would doing that. When it’s all said and done, we’ll see. But as of now, no regrets.”
Hoyer saved Ricketts tens of millions of dollars by holding the line in negotiations with three popular players from the championship team, and we all know how much Ricketts likes saving money. But the team’s late-season crash in 2023 proved to be Hoyer’s biggest disappointment and led to his cold-blooded decision to fire David Ross and hire Craig Counsell
. It was a critical success, but did not lead to any better results in 2024.
In essence, Hoyer’s fate is likely tied to the Tucker acquisition. If Tucker can put up the kind of numbers expected, he could put the Cubs on his shoulders and take them to the postseason, which should be enough for Ricketts to give Hoyer an extension.
If not, Hoyer shouldn’t have to worry about finding another job, though he might have to return to a GM role. Many of Epstein’s former lieutenants
are in front offices around baseball, and the old boys network hasn’t really changed, even if the modern-day version are highly educated, analytically-minded guys who never played, instead of former drinking buddies like the old days.
The Hoyer saga will be part of the Cubs’ story for the next six months.
CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (AP) — Kevin Kaarl nació en el 2000, pero sus inspiraciones incluyen a Bob Dylan, José José y Cesaria Evora, la Diva de los Pies Descalzos a la que rinde homenaje en su más reciente álbum.
El cantautor mexicano se suele presentar armado de una guitarra acústica y sus canciones son dulcemente melancólicas, como las de “ULTRA SODADE” cuyo título surgió de la canción “Sodade” de Evora.
“Mi novia siempre ponía esa canción, la poníamos en la troca (camioneta)”, dijo el músico originario de Chihuahua. “La ponía y se me quedaba muy pegada y una noche cuando no podía dormir, (ella) se puso a investigar un poquito y encontró que era todo un género que se originó en Cabo Verde, que es de donde es Cesaria”.
Sodade es una palabra del criollo caboverdiano que Evora tomó para cantar con mucho sentimiento las ausencias. Un sampleo de esa canción se puede escuchar en el tema que da título al álbum en el cual Kaarl tiene como invitado al rapero mexicano NSKQ.
“Le puse ‘ULTRA SODADE’, siento que sodade por más que si sea ese significado de nostalgia o añoranza, siento que al menos con Cesaria Evora lo llevó a algo un poco más importante, un sentimiento más fuerte”, dijo Kaarl. “Esa canción está hablando de cómo ella extraña su hogar porque hubo una dictadura en su país, entonces me imagino que mucha gente tuvo que salir de ahí e irse a otras partes”.
A pesar de esta base emocional delicada, el álbum tiene piezas más rítmicas y con toques electrónicos que las producciones anteriores de Kaarl como “Esta noche” y “búscame otra vez”, que se han convertido en favoritas de sus fans. Kaarl logró este sonido renovado gracias a la colaboración de su hermano mellizo Bryan, quien fungió como su productor principal, siendo el primer álbum de Kaarl en el que trabajó completamente con un productor, lo que le llevó a experimentar en otros temas como “Dime”.
“Bryan le metió sintetizadores y como un acordeón que embona (encaja) muy bien con el ritmo”, dijo Kaarl sobre esta última canción. “Bryan se puso a aprender a darle de todo, programas (de producción), es muy bueno, terminó haciendo las cosas muy bien y entendiendo muy bien cómo funciona cada cosa”.
Los hermanos tienen ahora su propio estudio en Chihuahua, lo que facilitó que trabajaran en cada canción. Sus horarios e intereses llevaron a un sonido muy nocturno. Kevin solía grabar sus voces y guitarra de día y Bryan completaba la producción de noche, hasta la madrugada.
“Lo siento como un álbum de noche y sí me gustaría que la gente lo viera con esa vibra, siento que es un álbum que embona mucho esos sentimientos que llegan en la noche, cuando estás solito y más tranquilo”, dijo Kaarl.
Para Kaarl es su tercer álbum tras “Paris Texas”, “Hasta el fin del mundo” y su EP “San Lucas”. En el caso de “ULTRA SODADE” dedicó casi dos años en su producción.
“Cambió mucho mi forma de escribir y mi forma de percibir las letras, siento también que obviamente los sonidos porque voy reconociendo nuevos artistas, nuevas bandas”, dijo. “Nos tardamos porque íbamos componiendo y luego grabábamos y al ser mi primera vez con un productor, a veces yo batallaba para darle mis ideas o para darle qué esencia quería llevar. Pero también porque le estuvimos metiendo exactamente lo que queríamos y buscábamos y no queríamos que se quedara una canción con sonidos que no cascaran tanto”.
Kaarl dijo que estuvo una época “traumadito con la música de Bob Dylan” y que encuentra algunos puntos en común con la evolución que ha tenido en su música.
“Vivió lo mismo que yo en el sentido de pasar de solamente folk a meter más instrumentos y cambiar el estilo con el que la gente lo reconocía”, señaló.
Otro de sus guías musicales es José José, de quien lanzó recientemente una versión de “El triste” para conmemorar el 55 aniversario de la primera interpretación del tema, compuesto por Roberto Cantoral, en aquella histórica interpretación del Festival de la Canción Latina.
Kaarl está por comenzar su internacional ULTRA SODADE, que lo llevará por México, Estados Unidos, Europa y Sudamérica. La gira, que comienza el 22 de abril en Atlanta, incluye paradas en Nueva York, Chicago, Los Ángeles, Ciudad de México, Madrid, Barcelona, Londres, París, Bogotá, Montevideo, Buenos Aires y Santiago de Chile, entre otras ciudades.
“Vamos a estar en todas partes y vamos a estar tocando un concierto muchísimo más elaborado”, dijo Kaarl. “Va a ser un concierto muy diferente a los que hemos tenido desde que inicié, yo siento que a la gente le va a gustar más y siento que va a conectar más con las canciones”.
Kaarl también adelantó que estará lanzando más contenido visual.
“Soy una persona a la que le gusta mucho el cine y todo eso, así que quiero continuar con la historia para terminar de contar bien todo lo que ha pasado en este álbum”, señaló.
While Virginia’s current
governor is facing more partisan pushback from the Democrat leadership in the General Assembly over his nominees to serve on state boards and commissions in the waning months of his administration (more regarding that issue coming soon to this space), two former Democrat governors have reached across the aisle to make suggestions to President Donald Trump for Virginia’s two open U.S. attorneys positions.
It is tradition that, regardless of party, when there are U.S. attorney vacancies in a state, the U.S. senators
of that state recommend to the president potential replacements.
Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner have jointly recommended to the president that he hire either Virginia House of Delegates Republican Minority Leader Todd Gilbert of Shenandoah County or former Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci, a Republican, to serve as the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia
.
Tracci is currently senior assistant attorney general and head of the Major Crimes and Emerging Threats Section of the Virginia Attorney General’s Office.
The senators also recommended Michael Gill, assistant counsel for shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries, and Erik Siebert for the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Siebert has served in that role since Jan. 21 in an interim capacity.
Long-term Richmond politics-watchers might cravenly think that the recommendation of Gilbert could be motivated by a desire to take one of the GOP’s leaders out of the General Assembly. However, Gilbert said in an interview with the Virginia Scope that he had put his name in for the position, pointing out that he was a “prosecutor in four different jurisdictions over 14 years, and certainly, criminal justice policy has been at the core of my service in the General Assembly since I got there.”
Tracci touted his experience as a prosecutor in the western region of the state when he told The Daily Signal that he had served as a special assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia
and served in two Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Offices in Albemarle and Louisa Counties, both in the Western District. He said that plus his experience in the Virginia Attorney General’s Office uniquely qualify him to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office “on Day One.”
The senators’ joint statement on the four candidates doesn’t hint at any other agenda. “We find these four candidates to be exceptionally qualified for the position of U.S. attorney,” they wrote.
The president will nominate one person for each office. Nominees will be considered first by the Senate Judiciary Committee and then be subject to a confirmation vote in the full Senate
.
The Lake County Health Department said it’s still trying to figure out what the recent $125 million cut in federal funding to Illinois for combatting infectious diseases, announced last week by the Illinois Department of Public Health, will mean for the county.
Health department and county representatives did not say what the exact amount and impact of the grant cuts will be. According to the department’s 2024 annual report, roughly $26.8 million, about 30% of the LCHD’s budget last year, came from state and federal grants.
“The county is actively evaluating all available options, in the event of a funding impact, across our various federal funding sources to support the numerous departments that depend on these resources to deliver their essential services,” a health department spokesperson said.
According to an IDPH press release, the federal funding was awarded to Illinois through 14 separate budget lines in the federal bipartisan CARES Act passed during the first administration of President Donald Trump.
Another $324 million for future work to prevent and treat infectious disease in Illinois was also being blocked, the release said. The money was meant for disease surveillance and vaccination activities, with the $125 million meant to strengthen COVID-19, measles and H5N1 disease surveillance, and to prepare for future potential pandemics.
The threat of various federal funding cuts, whether announced or only rumored, has sent shockwaves through numerous sectors in Lake County beyond the health department.
Nonprofit leaders working in housing, healthcare, education and more describe a general uncertainty and anxiety over funding issues, with organizations making plans to tighten their budgets in anticipation of possible cuts and reaching out to county partners in hopes of making up for any shortfalls.
“In the social service sector, there’s a lot of anxiety about just how to prepare,” United Way of Lake County President Quinton Snodgross said.
He warned that even if their partners in the county, some of whom rely on federal funding, are not directly impacted by cuts, the current uncertainty could mean reductions in services.
“There’s a lot of nonprofits that are still trying to understand the situation they’re in and what is coming down the road,” Snodgrass said. “A lot of people are making preparations for things that haven’t necessarily happened yet and trying to adjust for what they could do.”
He warned cuts would have “immediate and compounding effects” on already vulnerable families.
Gale Graves, vice president of community impact with United Way, said officials there are already seeing ripple effects from cuts to the USDA, ending funding for farmers who were supplying food pantries.
Both warned that cuts to anything, whether related to healthcare, housing or food, have ripple effects that appear in seemingly unrelated issues.
“The whole ecosystem is connected,” Snodgrass said. “When one nonprofit loses funding, like if a clinic closes, those patients are going to be pushed to ERs or other places. A cut in shelter funding, whether for emergency shelter or rental assistance, is going to increase homelessness. That impacts education, because student mobility is a key factor in student success. It’s going to impact health outcomes, and a slew of other things.”
Even delays in funding can be detrimental for some smaller organizations. Graves recalled prior to the pandemic, when social service funding was held back under then Gov. Bruce Rauner. Some organizations, unable to weather the delay, closed their doors before the money finally arrived, she said.
“There are several places where funding is being delayed, and that’s equivalent to a cut. Most nonprofits do not have a large operating surplus,” Snodgrass said. “If they’re looking at 30% of their budget being delayed by three, four, five months, that will cause an interruption in service.”
Snodgrass expects the number of people who fall under the “ALICE” designation — “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed” — to rise as federal funding is lost. These are people and families who are above the federal poverty rate, but below United Way’s calculated survivable wage for the county.
“It’s going to be a domino effect that agencies are going to feel,” Snodgrass said. “But also individuals in our community are going to feel because they’re reliant on services that maybe they don’t know, or aren’t expecting, to be impacted.”
Eric Foote, director of finance and operations at Lake County PADS, said about 13% of their budget, roughly $675,000, comes from federal funding. Cuts could be “devastating” to their work, which includes combating homelessness.
“One of the things federal dollars are focused on is paying for people that are chronically homeless to have housing,” Foote said. “That’s hard to privately fund for; it requires steady and consistent funding.”
Federal funds support marginalized communities in the county, and if resources drop, PADS is “going to have to make some terrible decisions,” he warned.
“We’re not in the business of making money; we’re in the business of turning resources into support for people,” Foote said. In the face of a “growing crisis” with homelessness, they were “getting squeezed from both ends. We’ve got more demand and less resources.”
Rachel Chenier, executive director of Family First Center of Lake County, said officials there “just don’t know” what the future holds. Chenier compared the situation to the COVID-19 pandemic, when there was “a lot of information swirling around, but nothing concrete.”
“You’re trying to prepare for something you don’t really know how to prepare for because you aren’t able to pinpoint it,” she said.
As uncertainty mounts, organization leaders said they’re doing their best to adapt and address any shortfalls that may come. That includes leaning on local philanthropy, as well as other local municipal funding sources.
They also emphasized building up their local partnerships with other area organizations, noting the resiliency of nonprofits after making it through the pandemic.
Chenier said Family First Center is trying to be adaptable in the event that federal funding is cut.
“I think of the word ‘pivot’ a lot,” Chenier said. “We’ve tried to learn how to find more revenue in non-traditional ways so that we’re not as affected by the government funding cuts.”
Snodgrass emphasized the importance of community support to addressing the issues.
“Everybody needs to work together in tandem to understand that any changes are impacting our entire community,” he said. “It’s up to us to come together and find ways to address it.”
